Verticillium dahliae is a destructive asexual soil-borne, hemibiotrophic, xylem-invading phytopathogenic fungus that causes wilt disease in a wide range of crops.Quite a few genes have been characterized as participators in vegetative growth and/or pathogenicity of Verticillium.To study the pathogenic and regulatory mechanisms of V.dahliae, we built a randomly insertional mutant library using ATMT method, and targeted gene disruption mutants of 17 interesting genes were produced and screened.A fungal-specific transcription factor-encoding gene, Vdpf, is one of the genes which were associated with vegetative growth and pathogenicity.It is not homologous gene of any characterized genes among pathogenic fungi.The △Vdpf mutants were similar to the wild-type (V991) and complemented strains in terms of growth rate, and responses to reactive oxygen species and osmotic pressure.The mutants were melanindeficient and produced less conidia than wild-type and complemented strains significantly (P < 0.01),but their germinated rates were quicker.